Product Description

This Duracell multi-purpose radio/flashlight/charger is a great addition to any emergency or survival kit. This 3 in 1 unit recharges by manual hand cranking. Compact with portable head phone jack. This flashlight is great for emergency preparedness as it can be placed in cars, trucks, boats, homes, or emergency kits. It requires no maintenance, no batteries, no bulb replacements.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22348 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Duracell
• Model: DLight5070
• Dimensions: 2.00" h x 2.50" w x 7.00" l, 1.00 pounds

Features

• Self-powered, easy-to-wind crank-light provides up to 30 minutes of light with one minute of cranking
• AM/FM/WB radio dial with built in speaker and volume control dial
• Charging internal batteries,and External Devices by Cranking the handle.
• This battery free unit is rugged, portable and built to last, has DC in, USB ports.
• A great survival tool and idea for emergencies, power failures, or outdoor outings

Customer Reviews

Finally, a crank light with a high-capacity internal battery
All crank LED lights I previously used (including the Dynamo Illuminator and Garrity Power Lite) have an inherent problem: they contain very wimpy internal rechargeable cells. As a result, you can easily over-charge those cells, causing permanent damage and shorten their life span.

Why? From the user's point of view, you want to charge up the battery very quickly (such that one minute of winding can give 30 minutes of light). But from the battery's point of view, charging at such a high rate (30X) can be murderous - especially since the user has no way to know when the battery is fully charged.

The Duracell Crank Light solved this problem by giving it a much larger capacity rechargeable battery. It contains three 300mAh NiMH cells. In comparison, the Illuminator only contains a single 36mAh Lithium-ion cell, and the Garrity contains 3x 80mAh NiMH cells. Once fully recharged, this 300mAh battery pack can power the LED flash for more than three hours!

Of course, it takes a lot more cranking to charge up a 300mAh battery, because now you are charging it at 'only' 6-8X instead of 30X. Fortunately, you don't have to fully recharge the internal battery before using it. Just crank it for one minute and you'll get 30 minutes of light from it, as advertised. The slower charging rate also makes it less likely for you to damage the cells by over-charging.

If you want to fully recharge the internal battery, the best way is to use the provided cable to connect the 'DC in' port (see my 'Customer Image') to the USB port of your computer. It takes about 10 hours because the charging is very gentle at 0.1X (30mA).

Conversely, you can also use the 'USB out' port on the crank light to recharge your cell phone (provided it has the correct DC input port) or to power a USB battery charger. But beware: the 'USB out' power is only available when you are cranking the handle, and you may need to crank for 10 minutes just for 1-2 minute of talk time.

Finally, this Duracell crank light also has a built-in AM/FM/WB (weather band) radio. But even as just a LED flash light, it is already worth the price.

Flashlight addict's dream
My wife tells me I have a problem and she's right. I've bought a lot of flashlights over the years and I like to see what's new and try it out, too. I bought these lights two days ago, the fourth set of hand-crank 'emergency' flashlights I've acquired. These have more features than any others I've seen, a very bright light and great radio features including AM/FM and best of all weather band reception. No other light I have has that feature and only one has the USB charging feature.

I bought it to try charging USB devices like our RAZR phones, small electronics like my PDA, MP3 player and so on. The instructions are confusing since they clearly say to detach any external devices prior to cranking, but tells you to charge external devices by attaching them and then cranking. It can also be charged from external sources, either with a 120V AC/DC that outputs 5v DC @ 300mA port or USB. No idea how easy it is to overcharge but instructions say it may take as long as 12 hours to fully charge. A green light comes on while it's charging. They claim that 1 minute of cranking = about 30 min of light, 12 min of radio or 2 1/2 hours of using the orange blinker light which seems to be accurate.

Specs from the back of the light: USB output is 5-5.6v DC @ 450mA.

It's superior to all but one of my other hand-crank lights and far far better than the so-called Faraday lights. As for emergency charging of other devices I'll edit this to show my experiences.

--1-22-08-- I don't understand the negative comments made about this light, it's still working great for me after several months.

No, you can't stand the flashlight up, as someone complained. But few flashlight offers that feature. It's plenty bright to walk on any outdoor path, trail or just thru the woods, let alone around your house. It has 3 very bright LEDs.

You can charge devices with this but it's better to charge the flashlight and then plug in the device to be charged. You can also just charge it via an AC/DC charger or a USB charger or port.

Nothing on either of my flashlights has broken or seemed loose and it's seen a lot of use and been roughly handled at times. I really don't understand the complaint about having to crank while using or constantly crank, 1 min of cranking gives over 30 min of light. At least on mine, maybe the assembly line is inconsistent. You can't fully charge a cellphone or iPod with this but that's clearly not the point - it can give you some talk time in an emergency when you otherwise wouldn't have any. Together with the radio the bright LED light this is very handy in an emergency.

Finally, a crank light with a high-capacity internal battery
All crank LED lights I previously used (including the Dynamo Illuminator and Garrity Power Lite) have an inherent problem: they contain very wimpy internal rechargeable cells. As a result, you can easily over-charge those cells, causing permanent damage and shorten their life span.

Why? From the user's point of view, you want to charge up the battery very quickly (such that one minute of winding can give 30 minutes of light). But from the battery's point of view, charging at such a high rate (30X) can be murderous - especially since the user has no way to know when the battery is fully charged.

The Duracell 3-in-1 crank light solved this problem by giving it a much larger capacity rechargeable battery. It contains three 300mAh NiMH cells. In comparison, the Illuminator only contains a single 36mAh Lithium-ion cell, and the Garrity contains 3x 80mAh NiMH cells. Once fully recharged, this 300mAh battery pack can power the LED flash for more than three hours!

Of course, it takes a lot more cranking to charge up a 300mAh battery, because now you are charging it at 'only' 6-8X instead of 30X. Fortunately, you don't have to fully recharge the internal battery before using it. Just crank it for one minute and you'll get 30 minutes of light from it, as advertised. The slower charging rate also makes it less likely for you to damage the cells by over-charging.

If you want to fully recharge the internal battery, the best way is to use the provided cable to connect the 'DC in' port (see my 'Customer Image') to the USB port of your computer. It takes about 10 hours because the charging is very gentle at 0.1X (30mA).

Conversely, you can also use the 'USB out' port on the crank light to recharge your cell phone (provided it has the correct DC input port) or to power a USB battery charger. But beware: the 'USB out' power is only available when you are cranking the handle, and you may need to crank for 10 minutes just for 1-2 minute of talk time.

Finally, this Duracell crank light also has a built-in AM/FM/WB (weather band) radio. But even as just a LED flash light, it is already worth the price.